Dominic Groß
Veteran Member
First of all, just to be very clear about it, this is not any sort of preview just some rather incomplete impressions and thoughts.
Overall the Camera feels better than the SD9 / SD10. It is heavier than it looks and the size is just about right, based on the leaked images some people said that it might too small. Imho the size is pretty good, for those who want it a bigger camera the new power pack should be a very nice addition, it feels really solid.
The rubber and overall grip is very good and I really love the shutter and mirror mechanism, they are smooth and leave a very "pro" feel, both mirror slap and noise are considerably reduced. Also the new Viewfinder is pretty good, bright and big, it is not as big as the D200 but it gets very close.
The AF is also quite a step forward. I did not really pay attention to the specifics here since my priority was to get pictures, my limited impression is that in low contrast it is better but still can't match the performance of Canon or Nikon. In low light I did not notice any of the specific AF problems of the SD9/10 in such conditions. Overall I did not have any trouble with the AF and liked how it performed, accuracy was good.
In conclusion one can say that the camera feels a lot more responsive and snappier, mainly because of the speed up of AF, faster burst rate and so on.
The big LCD is good to have, it is ok for a DSLR but a bit higher resolution would certainly be nice.
At first I was not really happy about the ISO selection through the menu on the LCD screen, but once used to it it works ok. One advantage of this is to give quicker access to settings like WB than before, without introducing a few hundred buttons like Minolta did on the Dynax 7D.
The layout of the other buttons and dials is good and well thought-out, for example the awkwardly placed shutter speed dial is gone and in manual mode the EV button switches the front dial between aperture and shutter speed.
Battery life seems to be another area with big improvements, the Battery problems we read about all the time here are history, I think it was the right way to go with a dedicated battery.
Finally, the pop up flash can indeed be useful to fill in a bit light when you have nothing else at hand, also the flash performance seemed to be far improved as far as automatic modes, that many seemed to have trouble with, are concerned.
There have been some complaints about image quality from people who tried the Camera at the Sigma booth at Photokina, these opinions were based on the LCD preview. Imho the LCD preview is not a good representation of the final image in many situations right now.
Much of the success will imho depend on how reviewers judge the image quality, I think it is best to wait for a more final version of the camera before making any conclusions, but in many areas, for example longtime exposures, the improvements are already clearly there.
It looks like Sigma is trying catch up on their weak points very hard, and we can expect the camera to have the usual strong points. So the major downside so far seems to be the list price, not that much for the people who are already into the System but for Sigma gaining a bigger market share. The price at which it will be sold can of course be a lot lower, imho the market situation will adjust the price sooner or later, so the "problem" that many see with the price right now might be non existent once the camera will be available.
It is amazing to see how many people that have not actually touched the camera, or seen any image from it can praise or bash it. Don't get me wrong, discussions are ok but what we see here is sometimes rather extreme, the result of this can only be a bunch of premature judgments that might or might not be valid once the camera is actually in stores.
--
http://www.pbase.com/dgross (work in progress)
http://www.pbase.com/sigmadslr/dominic_gross_sd10
Overall the Camera feels better than the SD9 / SD10. It is heavier than it looks and the size is just about right, based on the leaked images some people said that it might too small. Imho the size is pretty good, for those who want it a bigger camera the new power pack should be a very nice addition, it feels really solid.
The rubber and overall grip is very good and I really love the shutter and mirror mechanism, they are smooth and leave a very "pro" feel, both mirror slap and noise are considerably reduced. Also the new Viewfinder is pretty good, bright and big, it is not as big as the D200 but it gets very close.
The AF is also quite a step forward. I did not really pay attention to the specifics here since my priority was to get pictures, my limited impression is that in low contrast it is better but still can't match the performance of Canon or Nikon. In low light I did not notice any of the specific AF problems of the SD9/10 in such conditions. Overall I did not have any trouble with the AF and liked how it performed, accuracy was good.
In conclusion one can say that the camera feels a lot more responsive and snappier, mainly because of the speed up of AF, faster burst rate and so on.
The big LCD is good to have, it is ok for a DSLR but a bit higher resolution would certainly be nice.
At first I was not really happy about the ISO selection through the menu on the LCD screen, but once used to it it works ok. One advantage of this is to give quicker access to settings like WB than before, without introducing a few hundred buttons like Minolta did on the Dynax 7D.
The layout of the other buttons and dials is good and well thought-out, for example the awkwardly placed shutter speed dial is gone and in manual mode the EV button switches the front dial between aperture and shutter speed.
Battery life seems to be another area with big improvements, the Battery problems we read about all the time here are history, I think it was the right way to go with a dedicated battery.
Finally, the pop up flash can indeed be useful to fill in a bit light when you have nothing else at hand, also the flash performance seemed to be far improved as far as automatic modes, that many seemed to have trouble with, are concerned.
There have been some complaints about image quality from people who tried the Camera at the Sigma booth at Photokina, these opinions were based on the LCD preview. Imho the LCD preview is not a good representation of the final image in many situations right now.
Much of the success will imho depend on how reviewers judge the image quality, I think it is best to wait for a more final version of the camera before making any conclusions, but in many areas, for example longtime exposures, the improvements are already clearly there.
It looks like Sigma is trying catch up on their weak points very hard, and we can expect the camera to have the usual strong points. So the major downside so far seems to be the list price, not that much for the people who are already into the System but for Sigma gaining a bigger market share. The price at which it will be sold can of course be a lot lower, imho the market situation will adjust the price sooner or later, so the "problem" that many see with the price right now might be non existent once the camera will be available.
It is amazing to see how many people that have not actually touched the camera, or seen any image from it can praise or bash it. Don't get me wrong, discussions are ok but what we see here is sometimes rather extreme, the result of this can only be a bunch of premature judgments that might or might not be valid once the camera is actually in stores.
--
http://www.pbase.com/dgross (work in progress)
http://www.pbase.com/sigmadslr/dominic_gross_sd10
